Beam HF 5 bands interlaced

On the bench… Construction of a Beam HF 5 bands
Inspired by JK Antenna (JK NAVASSA-5) & Optibeam (OB11-5)
(Updated on time... More development & measurements later)

July 2016: 9 Elements, 5 Bands / Multiband Yagi 10, 12, 15, 17 & 20 meters on a 5,1m boom.

August 2016: I added 2 more el. as 11 Elements, 5 Bands / Multiband Yagi that interlaces 10, 12, 15, 17 & 20 meters on a 6m Boom.
73's de ZS1II

Balun 1:1   -   2 x FT-240-61 core

Modification U bolt, before and after !

Transmission Lines & Balun Assembly

Navy radio room clock

Nostalgia? I made my own replica, copy of an old Navy radio room clock...
Just for the pleasure of seeing again a Navy radio room clock like that in my Ham shack.

 Marine distress frequencies:
Red:  3 and 9 positions indicate that there must be a radio silence on the frequency of 500 KHz, 15-18 and 45-48 minutes
Green:  12 and 6 positions indicate that there must be a radio silence on the frequency 2182 kHz 0-3 and 30-33 minutes.
                                                                             Was something like this

Added new kienzle quartz clock movement

Made a new ``laminated `` dial clock

                                                                        Painting and that it!

Windfreak SynthNV

Windfreak SynthNV     RF Signal Generator / Power Detector Combo

I finally found a small RF generator that could replace the monsters I was using.
The Windfreak SynthNV  34.4MHz to 4.4GHz software tunable RF signal generator.
It weight only a few grams and fits easily in the hand.
 Characteristics of this gem.
        • RF sweep generator (34.4 MHz to 4.4 GHz up to 19 dBm output)
        • Network Analyzer (34.4 MHz to 4.4 GHz)
        • ROS analyzer (using the external power coupler)
        • RF power meter (real time)
        • and more to discover
With some other small gadgets, I’m sure to have good time in the laboratory and in the field.

Better than a long speech, here a excellent Video of Adam VK4GHZ for return loss on a 23cm yagi antenna.

SMD PCB examination soldering

As my vision began to decline (Hi), for circuits with SMD soldering and examination components,and microscopes are a bit expensive ...
I tried a web camera video to see more on the side of the circuit ..
I found it at a local store for 170 rand ($ 24) this little wonder.
Reduce altitude and look at the pictures. Not bad eh!

The wonder…                                         On support

Full screen on laptop                                              OK for me

7 GHz Digital RF Milli Wattmeter

On the bench..... (Updated on time...) I redo my old digital RF wattmeter.

Prototype model of the front face

The laboratory instruments such HP, Giga-tronics, etc... are used by some microwave experimenters.
But this stuff is not yet affordable on the surplus market because their prices still high, and sometimes questionable operation! For our amateur bench, it is inexpensive enough to be careless with a handy device with many uses without shame performances compared to large laboratory equipment.
A Wattmeter can be used to measure gain in amplifiers, bandwidth in filters, field strength from antennas, transmitter power, SWR, return loss and more.
This digital RF Milli Wattmeter is not an innovation. Many Ham's have already done this kind of equipment for their laboratory.  It is only a modest compilation of Digital Wattmeter from OZ2PCU (1KHz to 500MHz) and the Portable RF Sniffer and Power Meter from  W1GHZ VHF to 10 GHz.
Based of chips  LTC5508 Linear Technologies (300MHz to 7GHz range), AD8307 Analog devices (500 MHz),  PIC 16F876, Displaytech 202A Series (20 Characters x 2 Lines).

In this arrangement, instead of having dual input ports of 500 MHz with AD8307 on the original OZ2PCU display  to the PIC 16F876, Frequency coverage: 1 kHz to 500 MHz (calibrated),1 kHz to 1000 MHz (uncalibrated, for relative power measurements only), the portion of WIGHZ  10GHz with the LTC5508 was added to the CPU. The first Milli wattmeter was built with the probe outside the box. The second version is built with the two boards for SMD Fwith LTC5508 and AD8307 inside.

According from Paul W1GHZ the LTC5508 can be used until 10GHz.
While the frequency response is not as flat as a laboratory power meter, it still works even at 12 GHz. For the time being, I’m QRV only to 2320 MHz Max, but I hope to go higher!! And be ready to experiment my new SHF equipments.

With couple of attenuators, 50 ohms /10 GHz, this digital RF Milli wattmeter can be used for different measurements powers input.
 0 dB, no attenuator mounted, 1 W max.
10 dB attenuator mounted, 10 W max.
20 dB attenuator mounted, 100 W max.

References:
WIGHZ Microwave Integrated Power Detectors - Portable RF Sniffer and Power Meter.
OZ2PCU Digital RF wattmeter.
OZ2PCU

Pic of old one.